The Grace of Altar Serving.

Altar serving...Oh how I love it so!

I feel that altar serving is one of the greatest tools of discernment. Because when one is assisting the priest in something that only the priest can do, its like getting an "exclusive pass" to the greatest prayer ever. Personally, I feel that God bestows certain graces on me while I am altar serving, graces that really strengthen His call.

When I am not serving, I am always watching the servers, and sometimes get a little too distracted. And I always long to be serving when I am not. Its like an addiction-an addiction to the grace of service. And the cassock. Definitely an addiction to wearing a cassock....hahahahaha.

Just today, I altar served for my Great Uncle's funeral Mass. He was a great man, and will be truly missed. He gave me some great advice, advice I might share in another post. But altar serving for his Mass, it wasn't done for me, it was done for him. He was proud that I want to be a priest, and it was just one more thing done to honor him. Of course, one of the greatest moments was when all of his grandchildren went and placed roses on his casket. He loved them so much!

And after Mass, all everyone said to me was "great job" and it was difficult to be humble. I just kept saying "it was for him, he was really proud.".

And in that grace of service, God really spoke to me. Seeing how much Fr. Paul---oh I forgot! Fr. Paul, by the way is our new Pastor. Can't believe I haven't wrote about him yet! I'll have to do another post....

Back to what I had been saying: Seeing how much Fr. Paul was able to console the family, and seeing how fruitful his service was to them, it was beautiful. To truly be a shepherd to people, even in the darkness of death...its such a humbling thing. Ive struggled with grief, and conquered it, but I know of people who haven't. And I want to help them.


Sorry, I got a bit off topic, but...whatever. hahahaha. Anyways, altar serving rocks, and so does wearing a cassock. And so does my new Pastor, whom I'll talk about in another post. Pax Christi.

LEAD!

Well, first off, I have plenty of things that I will be posting about in the future, but I'm going to take my time with it. I haven't had a whole lot of time to sit down and post something.

As a mentioned in my last post, I was at the Franciscan University of Steubenville last week for LEAD and one of their annual youth conferences. It was truly an awesome week. I really learned a lot and made a lot of new friends, friends that I could call on when I am in need of any help.

As much as we learned about prayer and God, and the Church, the biggest thing I learned about was myself. See, we spent a lot of time in personal prayer with God, and we learned how to listen to Him. I realized that He knows me better than anyone else, and in that personal prayer time was when I learned all these things about me. God is like a loving parent in a lot of ways, one of those ways is that He likes to talk about us, His children, quite a bit.

I learned that silence isn't always awkward, but can be a blessing. I was able to see the identity that God had created me for, the person that He wants me to be.

I learned how to cast aside my old identity-the one built on sand-and embrace the new one-the one built on a rock-. I had been getting tired of the old identity. It was prideful, loud, and obnoxious. The new one is humble and reverent and very servant like. That is the man that God wants me to be, not the man that the world tells me that I need to be.

And my new family. Oh how I miss them! I'm referring to the other 40 people that I was there with, people whom I built relationships with that are closer and stronger than relationships I have with people Ive known all my life; even though we only knew each other for five days. This led to another realization of mine, that when a relationship is built on Christ, it grows stronger and stronger ten times faster than an average relationship. Look at it like this: when a house is built on rock, it is so sturdy that the construction time is cut in half. The builders don't have to worry about setbacks from an unstable foundation. One of my new brothers can attest to that, he builds houses for a living. He's really awesome. They all are really awesome.

As you can see, I like that whole built on rock/built on sand metaphor thing. It works!

Franciscan LEAD.

Well, in four hours, I leave for the Franciscan University of Steubenville. I was accepted to attend their LEAD (Leadership, Evangelization, And Discipleship) retreat held before each summer youth conference.

It will be a week full of workshops, daily Mass, Adoration/praise and worship, and making a bunch of knew friends. And then finally wrapped up with a MASSIVE youth conference.

Yea, I'm finding it very hard to sleep right now. Hahaha.

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The Love of Him.

"My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord;
my spirit rejoices in God my savior."

If I had to sum up the ways that that I feel about my Faith; about The Church; about Christ, then this passage would be a perfect explanation. When I reflect on all that has happened to me in the past year, all the people I have met, all the experiences-both good and bad-,I know that His hand had a play in it all. I know that He was there for both the good and the bad.

The passion that has been awakened inside of me, a passion for something that is greater than any passion I have ever encountered, it..its almost unbearable. This passion, it "roars like a lion" in the depths of my heart. A lion that cannot be silenced by anyone, not even the "Hercules" that is doubt.

When there are moments of doubt or moments of spiritual chaos, I can "be still" and know that my God reigns. That He is the "Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

"My God is not dead
He's surely alive
He's living on the inside
Roaring like a lion."

God is the most powerful force in the universe.

There was a quote on the board in Health class today, written by a random kid during a study hall. It read:

Selfless love that expects nothing back... is the most powerful force in the universe.

 So that means that God is the most powerful force in the universe. His love is the most powerful force in the universe. He loves us through all of our sin. He lifts us out of our darkness, not because He has to, but because He wants to. Because He loves us.

I'd like to quote a song from the David Crowder Band:

He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me.

 

And oh, how He loves us oh

Oh how He loves us,

How He loves us all

--How He Loves.

Truly a wonderful song. Truly a wonderful God.

 

Affirmation in the Eucharist.

After I went to confession today, I was kneeling and praying before the Tabernacle. I was asking God to affirm my faith in Him and in The Church. I had what could be described as a vision, but was more like a dream that you have when you are slightly beginning to fall asleep. It was a vision of The Host in the Tabernacle, and the Holy Spirit, which looked like smoke, was falling apon it. Then, God spoke in my heart, He said "affirmation is in the Eucharist." I realized that the affirmation that I seeked was in Him, and in the love that He has for us. And in the most blessed sacrament.
The Mass that followed felt very much affirming. Father H. gave a wonderful homily that was like a defibrillation to my failing faith. I was alar serving and was the first person, other that Father H. himself to receive the Eucharist. Once I receieve Him, I felt a very strong feeling of peace, a feeling of belonging.

I took great comfort in the Gospel reading for this 5th Sunday in Easter.

"Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me."

 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me. "

And in John 14:8-12 I felt like I was Philip, who is my confirmation saint, and Jesus was giving me some very good advice:

8	Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we shall be satisfied."
9	Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you do not know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father; how can you say, `Show us the Father'?
10	Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority; but the Father who dwells in me does his works.
11	Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me; or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves.
12	"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father.

 I had been seeking to see God, and He was there all along, I just hadn't realized it. Jesus had given me a little bit of constructive criticism. It was truly a memorable day.

Hand made wooden carvings, from The Holy Land!!

A couple weeks ago we had two guys who came from Michigan to sell some wooden, religious carvings at my parish. These carvings were hand carved by Christians in the Holy Land, then sent here to be sold to help and support them. The two guys, Kale and Essau, are immigrants from Jerusalem who volunteer their time to help their brethren. They are really nice guys.

                        Essau                  Kale